1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printing cloth suitable for use in conducting printing by an ink-jet system, a printing process using this cloth, and a print obtained by this process. In particular, this invention relates to a printing cloth on which printing can be easily conducted by means of a general-purpose ink-jet printer generally used for recording media such as paper, a printing process using this cloth and printed products such as patchwork and ditty bags obtained by this process.
2. Related Background Art
In recent years, textile printing apparatus making use of an ink-jet technique have been put to practical use, and printed cloths with high definition have come to be produced by a simple process. In such a printing process, however, a great amount of dyes is unvaryingly washed out by a post treatment as before. Therefore, these apparatus are all industrial printing apparatus. On the other hand, ink-jet printers generally used for printing media such as paper are commonly spread. For the above-described reason, it is substantially difficult under the circumstances for users to easily conduct printing with high definition as they please using such a printer.
In the industrial printing process, a cloth after printing is subjected to a treatment called steaming, in which the printed cloth is exposed to high-temperature steam, thereby more accelerating the bonding between dye molecules and molecules constituting fibers in the cloth. The thus-treated cloth is then washed with water, thereby washing out unreacted dye molecules to obtain a print. The dyes washed out at last generally amount to from 20% to 50% of the dyes used upon the printing. In order to maintain sufficient color depth as a print, therefore, dyes in an additional amount corresponding to the dyes washed out must be provided in advance, and so great amounts of dyes are generally required in the industrial printing process. Such washing out of dyes also apply to textile printing apparatus making good use of an ink-jet system.
Small-sized and low-priced color ink-jet printers have recently come to spread, and there has also been a demand for easily printing on cloth using such a printer. However, in such an ink-jet printer, an ink used therein generally contains a dye only in an amount limited to several percent for the purpose of preventing reduction in ejection efficiency from a minute nozzle in a printing head and ejection failure mainly caused by the drying of the ink in an orifice of the nozzle. Therefore, it is difficult to apply a great amount of the dye to the cloth if a general-purpose ink-jet printer is used as a simple texture-printing apparatus meeting the above demand. It is accordingly necessary to devise so as to scarcely wash out the dye applied to the cloth upon subsequent water washing. This makes it possible to avoid an increase in running cost due to the increased consumption of the dye and a problem of contaminated waste water in general homes, and is hence said to be more important.
In addition, since the above-described steaming treatment in the industrial textile printing can be scarcely performed in general homes, this steaming treatment also becomes a great problem.
In addition to these problems, there remains a problem that since a feeding mechanism of a medium in the general-purpose ink-jet printer is constructed in consideration of printing on generally used printing media such as paper and plastic films typified by OHP sheets, cloth and the like, which are soft, or free of so-called "stiffness" as compared to these media, are hard to feed.
In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present assignee has proposed a printing cloth which does not cause washing out of dyes, and is feedable in general-purpose ink-jet printers. However, there are various kinds of materials or the ways to weave on cloths. Therefore, a further improvement has been required if one has intended to bring out reliable and good printed image properties on these various kinds of cloths. In the above proposal, it is conducted to aggregate a dye applied on a cloth to fix the dye by a method in which printing is conducted with an ink containing an anionic dye on a cationized cloth, or a method in which a substance having an ionicity different from that of a dye in an ink, i.e., a dye-fixing agent, is contained in a cloth in advance. In these methods, however, there are cases where feathering may increase, though it is a little, according to the pattern of a printed image when printing is performed in an environment of high humidity on a printing medium composed of a fabric such as a cloth and having interstices between weaving yarns thereof, and where washing out of dyes upon water washing may somewhat occur. These problems are regarded as more important when more bright printed images is intended to provide on various kinds of cloth using an ink-jet technique.
In general, a polymeric substance has been used as the dye-fixing agent. This compound serves to facilitate the fixing of the dye by associating this polymeric substance itself with the dye to aggregate them. Therefore, it is effective to make the size of the aggregate greater from the viewpoint of the fixing of the dye. It is hence effective to use a polymeric substance having a higher molecular weight. However, if the molecular weight of the polymeric substance as the dye-fixing agent is too great, there is a tendency for the polymeric substance to retain on the surface of the cloth by the impregnation method conventionally performed due to its poor penetrability when applied to the cloth by itself. If printing is performed on such a cloth, the dye becomes easy to undergo aggregation. Therefore, image quality and fastness to water, i.e. water fastness are adversely affected when a pattern using a great amount of an ink is printed, or printing is performed at a high humidity. More specifically, there occur disadvantages such that a) colorability becomes poor, and b) the penetration of the ink in a thickness direction of the cloth is prevented, and bleeding on the surface of the cloth becomes marked at potions of the cloth, to which a great amount of the ink is applied. Besides, there are exerted adverse influences such that c) the penetration of the ink into the cloth is easy to become uneven, and so the evenness of a solid printed area is poor, and d) sufficient dyeing is not achieved due to the insufficient penetration, and so water fastness becomes low. Since there is a possibility that such conditions may occur, the kinds of usable polymeric substances are limited, and so a range of application of cloth may become narrow. Therefore, the present inventors have aimed at achieving higher image quality on various kinds of cloth.